routine

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French routine.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /ɹuːˈtiːn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

routine (countable and uncountable, plural routines)

1. A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.
2. A set of normal procedures, often performed mechanically.

   Synonym: rut

   Connie was completely robotic and emotionless by age 12; her entire life had become one big routine.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

     It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.

3. A set piece of an entertainer's act.

   stand-up comedy routine

4. (computing) A set of instructions designed to perform a specific task; a subroutine.

   Synonyms: function, procedure, subroutine

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

routine (comparative more routine, superlative most routine)

1. According to established procedure.
2. Regular; habitual.
   • 1993, Tristan Hawkins, Pepper, London: Flamingo, →ISBN, page 108:

     Pepper's forgiven me in the quiet, hurt way women sometimes forgive. She doesn't cry. She doesn't smile either. She's being routine.

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. […] One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

3. Ordinary with nothing to distinguish it from all the others.
   • 2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport:

     Stoke put themselves in a fine position to qualify for the Europa League knockout stage with a routine victory over Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel.

Derived terms

• routinely

Translations

Anagrams

• in route, in utero, tue-iron

French

Etymology

From French route (“road, route”), and Old French -ine: a suffix for diminutive purpose.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁu.tin/

• Audio (une routine)

  (file)

Noun

routine f (plural routines)

1. routine (all senses)
2. (Louisiana, Cajun, St. Mary Parish) road

Derived terms

• prendre sa routine à volonté

Descendants

Further reading

• “routine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• ouïrent

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French routine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ruˈtin/
• Rhymes: -in

Noun

routine f (invariable)

1. routine
2. rut

Derived terms

• routinario

Further reading

• routine in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• rutenio, turione, unitore, uterino